When Sparrows Fall by Meg Moseley is contemporary Christian fiction. And that means it's a bit hard to categorize. Some romantic elements. Some suspense elements. Some just tug at your heart elements.
The gist of the plot is that widow and mother of six, Miranda Hanford has been installed in a toxic church since her marriage right out of college. It's been so long since she's known freedom that when it comes within reach, she's afraid to grab it and afraid to lose it. The book opens with her taking a nasty fall of the edge of a cliff near her home. Her brother-in-law is called in as legal guardian to care for her children.
Jack Hanford has wanted family all his life and has never really gotten over the rejection his brother had given him when he'd finally found him some ten years before. Now he has a chance to make a difference.
All the children in this novel are a delight and well-defined. I loved the phrase that Jack took on for the middle boys, Michael and Gabriel — the archangels, and how even Miranda picked it up as the story progressed.
Toxic churches are intriguing to me, and Meg Moseley did a great job of showing how a family could get caught up in one and how difficult it was to get out of one. Even the leader of the church was portrayed as making one bad decision after another that led him to the place where he believed himself god-like.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the hurts, the scares, the striving to change, but not change too much. The struggles of the main characters to understand and forgive, but not yield to fear and evil any longer. Excellent story.
